


Project Runner

by Renaissaince



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: A 'what if...' if you will., Alternate Universe, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Spoilers - No Mercy Route, Spoilers - Pacifist Route, There's the OC, This will eventually spoil all routes., eh, it went up for Swearing.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-14
Updated: 2015-10-16
Packaged: 2018-04-26 07:29:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4995667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Renaissaince/pseuds/Renaissaince
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You had seven souls. All of them; running. To where?<br/>Well...<br/>Each human had a different MOTIVE.<br/>Some wanted to SAVE.<br/>Some wanted to KILL.<br/>All wanted the fate of the Underground resting in their hands.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginnings

“Howdy! I’m Flowey!”

It was dark, and it was cold.

Just like the human in front of him.

Just like the soul inside of the golden petals.

Just like THEM.

But let’s get back to the human, first.

Actually, he wasn't anything special.

He stared blankly ahead.

As if he wanted to walk past him and get this entire scene over with. 

In that brief moment, he began to ponder

Humans, Flowey thought, have always fascinated him. 

The amount of DETERMINATION in their soul.

And what they did with their fleeting lives. 

They gave, they took, they loved and they hated. 

In the back of his mind, he wondered what the human did with HIS life.

Was he a Pacifist?

Or a Genocidal maniac?

Well, that wasn’t any of Flowey’s concern.

They both knew he had to get this done. 

The longer they stood there, the more time was wasted. 

That was how destiny worked, right?

Right?

So he continued on with that fake cheery voice. 

“Flowey the FLOWER!” 

The boy, no older than a teen, locked eyes with the plant.

And then shook his head slightly. His expression morphed into one of disgust.

Flared nostrils and a frown creased his features.

But what could possibly disgust him so? 

HIM?

If that was the case, he already knew of this world. Which meant that this entire introduction was pointless.

The golden flower scoffed at his choice of reaction, the lack of words in his mouth. 

No, this was ridiculous.

Why should he even be nice to a human, anymore? 

All they did was fall, one after the other, into that hole over there.

Who would be IDIOTIC enough to fall down into a hole on top of a MOUNTAIN?

Apparently, this guy. 

His voice filled with scorn sooner than it should have.

Oops.

“Ugh. No, I’m tired of this game. How many times have I seen you, again?”

The flower barked out, loud in the expanse of silence.

No response.

“A thousand? Ten thousand?” 

Flowey’s voice rose in pitch.

It was as if he was trying to get all of the anger out of his soul.

The rage flew out into English. 

“HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF TIMES? What, are you going to-”

There was a flash, as if the world was falling at the seams…

And it started over again.

**IT ALWAYS STARTED OVER.**

“Hi, I’m Flowey!”

His voice was back to it’s normal tone, cheerful and welcoming to the new soul that fell down into the chasm.

A female this time. 

Still that stupid expression. 

But this was more of a neutral pass. Hm...

“Flowey the FLOWER!”

A little crack from this one. 

The glimpse of a smile on her lips. 

Oh, she must be new.

This is what we do to newbies.

The bullets surrounded her soul. 

A harsh ‘click-click-click’ sound that would end her life force, deplete her soul, and give her an immediate GAME OVER before she even started.

It was impossible to escape. 

Like death drawing his scythe up, it was inevitable and clear to what was going on. 

And it should of been impossible, the speed he managed to overpass.

If it hadn’t been rehearsed.

“DI-”

**FLASH.**

Ooh, Might’ve scared her a bit. Looks like she quit early…

Here comes another.

“Hi, I’m Flowey-”

X 

X

XXXXXXX-

The words were taken out of his mouth this time, interrupted by the Human’s whispers of ‘Skip, skip, skip.’

“Don’t worry, i’ll share some LOVE with you-”

The conversation went on as normal, but layed in his head as an endless stream of text. 

And when SHE came to mess him up, to blow him away with fire...

The sensation of yet another timeline breaking and remolding was there to pick him up.

**FLASH.**

Hi! I’m Flowey!

Flowey the-

**FLASH.**  


Hi! I’m-  


**FLASH.**  


Flowey the-  


**FLASH.**  


-flower!  


**FLASH.**  


Wait-  


**FLASH.**  


Stop thi-  


**FLASH.**  


Please-  


**FLASH**

And he was tired.

Tired of the resets.

Tired of the good.

Tired of the bad.

Tired of the Neutrality. 

Oh so tired.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear I'm going somewhere with this.  
> Anyway, hello, welcome to the first Fanfiction I actually want to work on.  
> And my first fic on AO3.  
> Er...  
> Yep.  
> I probably won't post in a while, I'm actually still working on the seven souls.  
> So...  
> See you then? c:


	2. The Fall

_Arrive at the scene. Clusters of bodies in six different kitchens at a public High school. Utensils were out, garlic was pressed, the air smelled heavy of parmesan. Three people stood in the little square simply marked with a blurred number._

_Person A was humming along to a song, occasionally muttering the phrase ‘It gets worse.’ There was no conversation going on between the individuals. There was no need for words.They worked like a well oiled machine and knew the rest of the group’s moves._  
_It was at peace._

_But then… Person B says something to the one humming. A response in kind with ‘Yeah, Papyrus would have a pretty sweet Restaurant.’_

_They laugh, they joke,and they exchange punchlines… but the mood turned somber once more._

_(It was once upon a time, where everything was in turmoil.)_

_“....It’s weird.” Person A continued on with the conversation.”My brain tells me to ‘Finish the last step, do the final route, you’ve never let it stop you before... but…” The student paused for a moment, the knife in her hands halting with her movements. She almost hit the low-hanging Halloween decoration above her head when she brought the knife hand up to rub her eyes. The one she was talking to looked at her with a confused expression, not understanding why she suddenly stopped her sentence._

_“But what?”_

_“But I don’t want to. I want them to live in peace, you know?” A sad smile. She felt sorrow, just as everyone else had whilst in that world. Which, really, couldn’t have existed._

_(Because humans were never at war. )_

_“And that’s what we get for going for the True Ending first. Now we’ll feel guilt if we move over to Genocide.”The other one remarked and pointed at the first speaker with a measuring spoon. “But then again, Genocide would ruin your happy ending, so…” With a clicking sound of the tongue, they turned back to the pot on the stove, which had just started to steam._

_(There were no such thing as monsters.)_

_“... Hey, friend, dice these?” Instead of responding immediately to the fact, Person 1 moved a whole cutting board of potatoes over to the third human in the kitchen, who looked upon the vegetables with disgust._

_Why couldn’t Person 1 cut these, again? Oh, right. They were gushing to Person 3 about something or other…. she would bet her left foot it was about the game._

_“Fine. but you two are so addicted. “_

_(And even if they had such creatures,)_

_“Undertale is a fun game, though. Not JUST an addiction, it’s like a new way of ooking at things.” The second human quipped at the one who was now cutting, before helping themselves to a mischievous grin. “Besides…” they added. “You just happen to love Koei, too. Why, earlier you were talking about….”_

_Person one started to cackle, turning a few heads. “You’d probably dump us for that cute blonde you had your eye on…_

_“Come on, you fell in love with a Skeleton! And YOU with a Robot!”_

_“AT LEAST MINE DIDN’T DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH-”_

_“Teeeechnically…”_

_(Surely they could not feel compassion in their SOUL…)_

\---

**FLASH-**

“Hi! I’m Flowey!”

The area they stood in was bare and damp, save for a light coming from above and green grass below the flower who spoke his own name.

Everything else was… darkness, darkness.

A dark place with a royal purple arch marking the end of the room. Towering columns framed the gaping blackness like a picture book that the finest hand sculpted. It was the exit from the shadows that consumed. Everyone left through that door. Everyone continued on to erase their past mistakes and make new ones. Everyone was there for one purpose of their choosing.

Because the door was there in the first place, it could only mean one thing.

‘Here comes another Overworld creature.’

And the new figure stood there on the other side of the small space, struggling to his feet after a heavy fall.

He was an average, mid-height human who bore a black shirt on his shoulders. The design on it was unfamiliar to the golden flower, some sort of complex scribble that confused the eye… well, it would have confused the eye if it hadn’t been covered by a white hoodie. So technically, no one had a clue of the design at all.

He was wearing black cargo pants and white sneakers., but the shoelaces were untied, and they flopped uselessly at the sides of his feet..Kind of like dead snakes. And the only ‘fancy’ thing on his body were two silver bracelets on his right wrist, bearing the symbol of many overworld gaming industries. This was all sized up at a glance.

And the expression on his face…

Was PRICELESS.

“Flowey the Flower!” The plant practically sang with glee, eagerly noting the newcomer’s hesitance. In fact, when Flowey spoke, this creature had the decency to take two slow steps back. There wasn’t anywhere to move in this small slice of hell. But it was like he wanted to move as far away as he could from Flowey. As if he was… afraid?

Yes…. the proper place for one like him.  
In the face of the new GOD.

“Dear me…” Flowey continued. “You look so confused-”

“Get away from me.” He responded, voice trembling.

Now, before, you would have seen Flowey’s utter distaste of repeating the exact lines over and over again. Who wouldn’t get tired of exclaiming their name, only to have others interrupt you mid-sentence? And you would also see anger at the human. How dare he speak to him that way?

But this was unusual. This was new. He was humming and swaying, everything he did when he first took it upon himself to greet the new humans. He didn’t even care about the rude demeanor he was treated to. Acted like it was normal.

The endless cycle of resetting was the same, but what was different this time? What made the creature, bound eternally to the depths of the earth, so happy to be existing?

It was simple, Flowey would tell you. He found it.

He found how to destroy the world once more.

Now, everyone in the Underground knew about the Humans. It was common knowledge that you needed seven human souls to break the barrier, and that’s what Flowey wanted. But they only had six human souls, all in the possession of the King.

Now, at first, Flowey waited.  
And waited.  
And waited.

For a human to complete a full run and get mercilessly (well, Mercifully) slaughtered.

It never happened. Instead, they either finished and left the Underground forever, or they started their file over. There was no third option. All of the humans just kind of vanished. Like his first friend, they were never seen again in the Underground.

And Flowey got tired of waiting. He got so… tired in general, that he wanted to change his approach.

So, he’s trying out this new method by collecting SEVEN souls himself.

How, you would ask? But there would be no response. He couldn’t give everything away now. That would just be silly. And if you dare ask why, well-

Flowey’s thought process was interrupted by the human’s panicked intake of breath. The boy’s right hand twitched, reaching out to something that was no longer in his grasp.

To attack?

To give Mercy?

No, silly.

To reset.

Flowey rid himself of his inner monologue to look questioningly at the Human.

There was the faint, faint sensation of hands grasping at the world with claws of steel, trying to pull it apart once again. They scratched and they strained, tore at the edge of his vision and warped the edges of the earth...

But nothing came to rip it out of his hands. It stayed put this time.

The claws were dull. The straining was that of child’s play. The scratching hardly rose welts. And the tearing mended itself back together.

All because of the secret.

“What the hell did you do to my file?” He whispered, eyes widening as the realization dawned on him. You could just see the thoughts running through his brain.

He couldn’t escape. He was trapped. The window wasn’t closing… was it even a window at al, anymorel? Was this a dream? Maybe his friend HAD gotten to him… but this could be changed, he just had to…

He just had to get out of here.

“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY FILE?” The human screamed as loud as he could, trying to raise his voice over Flowey’s maniacal, almost insane laughter. This was no dream. This was all too real…

“I did NOTHING, you IDIOT!” He emphasized the two words with the same volume that his guest used. There was only so much he could put up with before his civil exterior snapped. As expected, he flinched back and made more attempts to back up.  


But he was running out of space by now. Again, the area was not as large as he had hoped, and all too soon Flowey saw the surprise in his eyes when his back hit the wall.

Flowey didn’t really move. He took this moment to… absorb this creature’s fear. “I know what you’re thinking.” The menace continued with his voice back to normal. “‘Goat Mom’ comes in to save the day, right? To blast me away?”

**Click.**

**Click.**

**Click click click click-**

“What a joke.”

The ‘friendliness pellets’ appeared into existence next to Flowey. There could have been an infinite amount of energy-like bullets there, swirling around in a vortex that promised nothing but pain.

It wasn’t that he actually wanted to kill the human. Quite the opposite, in fact. He wanted the human to be free to make his own choice in this world. He wanted the newcomer to live on, and not meet his end in the Underground, for once. However, there was no way that he would listen to Flowey in this state. So there was only one option, right?

He aimed at the human’s chest, could almost see the GREEN soul that lie dormant in the depths of his body…And fired at the door instead. The floor collapsed where the bullets fell, creating a vast opening in front of the exit. A chasm almost impossible to cross.

This boy, his one chance of freedom was literally obliviated before his eyes. Turned to dust, just like the rubble around him.

He had no choice but to listen.

“Now…” Flowey acted as if this was some sort of new interaction. “...Tom, right?”

The newly dubbed ‘Tom’ didn’t really respond. But he continued on anyway...

\---

It took ten minutes for something to go wrong… er, right in Flowey’s case. Something happened. It’s not exactly a standpoint of what’s right or wrong, because we can’t truly tell what’s truly right or wrong. Someone’s view of right could be your view of wrong. So…  
Something happened. Let’s say that.

Flowey was talking about destroying the pitiful race of Monsters, as well as the Overworld itself. He went on and on about how he was going to change once he collected the seven souls; how he would become some sort of ultra-powerful being. Tom just shook his head, kept saying ‘I’ll stop you.’

 It really wasn't scary anymore.

Speaking of stopping things… Tom kind of wanted Flowey to just stop altogether.  
He was getting used to Flowey’s changing faces. It didn’t get quite as scary as it did before. He just had three main emotions, anyway- Rage (directed at him) Joy (of mocking him) and pity (... of having to deal with him. Not of him.)

And the mocking itself, that was getting old real fast. Now all Tom wanted to do was bite the flower’s head off. Quite literally, but he was sure it would try to devour his tongue or something. So he refrained, for now.

After the seventh consecutive round of ‘How many times can i use Idiot in a sentence,’ (You idiot! I don't understand how idiotic you could be with your idiocy, just the idiot thought of such an idiot is enough to make me faint of idiotism!) another human fell down.

Flowey and Tom paused in their respective ranting and starting to look over at the new addition to their group. Flowey with a smirk, Tom with a horrified look on his face.

Two humans?

At the same time?

What was this?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to write more, but then i decided I wanted to spend more time on the introduction.  
> So that's why you have to wait.
> 
> We do have Foods classes around here, and they're pretty fun. Especially when my friend and I get started about Undertale. But then my other friend wants to talk about Koei so I start mixing the two and it's just a fun mess.


End file.
